


A Home Built of Paper and Ink

by acrisisofbeholding



Series: All the Shades [3]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Aftercare, Alternate Universe, Anal Fingering, Asexual Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Bookstores, Canon Asexual Character, Couch Cuddles, Day One: Ink, Demisexual Gerard Keay, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Gentle Dom Martin Blackwood, M/M, Multi, No beta we die like archival assistants, Polyamory, Sex Positive, Smut, TMA Gerry Week 2021, Trans Male Character, Trans Martin Blackwood, Unsafe Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:00:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29640579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acrisisofbeholding/pseuds/acrisisofbeholding
Summary: There was always something a little magical about Martin's bookstore.A piece of home in the midst of a nebulous life.This is even more true when his partners are there with him.
Relationships: Gerard Keay/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood/Gerard Keay, Martin Blackwood/Gerard Keay/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Series: All the Shades [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2175105
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33
Collections: TMA Gerry Week 2021





	A Home Built of Paper and Ink

**Author's Note:**

> Written for TMA Gerry Week 2021.  
> Prompt one: Ink + Prompt five: Home.  
> One shot set in my All the Shade series.
> 
> CW:  
> Sex! (Kinky, vaguely in a public place, unplanned. Between Martin and Gerry. Jon is not present for the sex scene.)   
> Discussion of work stress. 
> 
> Martin is a post top surgery transman and feminine terminology is used for his genitalia.

Martin: Have to work late. Don't wait up.   
Jon: Me too. I'll text on my way out.   
Gerry eyes the messages critically. It's not that he's annoyed that they won't be coming home, he just misses them.   
He steps back from the painting he's been working on all day already, acknowledging that he's tired of it and needs a break.   
Many paintings have been ruined in his career because he wouldn't admit when he needed to step back and do something else. It had been a hard lesson to accept, and one of the reasons he had always kept a side gig to absorb extra time.   
Now his two favourite ways to spend free time are both busy and he feels vaguely petulant about it. At least if they were busy here he could be busy with them nearby.   
Gerry considers his options. More than likely, Jon has demanded his assistants work late with him (the menace), and Gerry will only be bothering him.   
Martin, on the other hand, is more than likely alone in the bookstore now, and Gerry could just… Sit around nearby and maybe flirt with him a bit.   
By the time Gerry slips into the tearoom entrance, the sun is almost set and the final customers are just wandering out. The remaining staff are tired and ready to go, and simply close up around him, Martin busy in his back office.   
Gerry sits on the long, comfy bench, reading a book he won't pay for and drinking the last of the iced tea. After the store has been closed for a solid 30 minutes, Martin emerges and jumps about 8 feet in the air to find him sitting there.   
Cheeks flushed and panting ever so slightly, his lover makes an incredibly fetching sight. His glasses are pushed up into his soft pink curls and his big yellow sweater brings out his sweet brown eyes.   
"Hey, baby." Gerry greets him cheerfully, sucking on his drink and not moving his booted feet off the table.   
"Gerry. Hi, sweetheart." Martin presses a hand to his chest, flustered. "What are you doing here?"   
He shrugs. "Missed you. Hoped you wouldn't mind having me slightly closer by."  
Martin softens, posture slumping. "I'm very happy to see you, you just gave me a bit of a scare. I really wanted to be home by now."  
The other man stomps over and tosses himself into Gerry's lap. He rests very pleasantly in the circle of his arms for several long, delightful moments, breathing deeply and trying to forgo the tensions of the workday.   
"Want to tell me about it?" Gerry prompts him gently, pressing an affectionate kiss to his temple.   
Martin pulls away, and Gerry is tempted to cling to him, but resists the urge and lets him go. "Can we have tea while we talk?"   
"Of course. I'll make it." The goth hops up, already rounding the counter by the time Martin is able to offer a protest.   
"You don't have to do that," Martin reassures him. He doesn't try to get up and take over though, so Gerry knows he needs the small bit of care.   
He makes a pot of Earl Grey, Martin's favorite, and brings a full tray over so they can drink tea together and eat the last of the pastries.   
"I have to finish the last of the admin stuff today and install this new coffee machine," Martin tells him, pulling his feet up and sitting close to Gerry's side. "It's more like a spaceship than cafe equipment and everyone else is terrified to touch it."  
He sighs deeply and Gerry tucks him under an arm. "Then there's this new shipment of books from an estate sale that came in that I want to look through myself, but I haven't even had time to so much as open the box…"   
"I'll hang around until you're done. Then we can walk to the library and make Jon come home with us." Gerry knows better than to heap too much help onto Martin at once. His lover is ridiculous about accepting assistance, despite his proclivity for mothering everyone around him.   
"I-" Martin starts already, blushing a little.   
"Don't start." He says firmly, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "I want to."  
Martin sputters a bit but knows better than trying to argue with his more forceful partner.   
They finish their tea and Martin disappears back into his office to do the last of the admin nonsense that Gerry can't cope with.  
He sets to work on the spaceship coffee marker, and between a surprising affinity for such things and Google on his phone, it's almost completely functional by the time Martin stumbles out of the office, dazed.   
He simply blinks at Gerry for a second. Triumphant, he presents Martin with a tester coffee that he managed to make with the contraption.   
"How did-" Martin stops, shakes his head forcefully. "I don't actually care. I'm just unbelievably grateful. Thank you, my love."  
He sets aside the mug and sweeps Martin into his arms when he approaches him.   
Martin clings to him for several wonderful moments, and Gerry just soaks it in. Everything is so worth it for these ridiculous men of mine, he thinks to himself.   
"Two things down." Gerry proclaims, cheerfully kissing Martin's hands after the pull apart.   
"Two things down, together." Martin agrees, fondness shining out of his lovely face. 

They set to work on the books together.  
Unpacking the old tomes as they come in is Martin's favourite part of the entire business by far, and he is loathed to give it up for the convenience of having Tim or someone else do it.   
It would be easier to pass along the task, but there is a simple, yet effective magic in holding a book in your hands. You can see and smell it, guess at its rich history, then offer it a temporary home in the bookshelves of a sacred literary space. It's a heady feeling that just keeps Martin coming back for more. It was the reason he had wanted a bookstore in the first place, and each time he experiences it, he marvels at the miracle of his unexpected life.   
"You know," Gerry tells him, leaning past him to press a book into the very top shelf, "You were looking at a book just like that the first time I realised that I was falling in love with you."   
"What?" Martin queries, honestly shocked. "When was that?"  
"It was," Gerry considers carefully, trying to remember the setting, as well as the emotions of the moment. "When my hair was orange. The day after we went to the park for the first time. I came in to pick up a coffee and there you were, nose buried in the book, standing in this shaft of sunlight. You looked like that book was all you had ever wanted and more. I wanted you to look at me like that one day."  
"And do I?" Martin asks softly, overcome.   
"Yes, every day." Gerry smiles at him lovingly, pecking him on the cheek as he moves past.   
They work in companionable silence, each following their own late-night contemplations.   
Martin watches his lover as he moves through the stacks of his bookstore, the most solid manifestation of support he could imagine.   
When he thinks about it, Jon and Gerry are always in here. Drinking tea, reading books, meeting friends here, and just being present and involved. It's almost overwhelming now that he focuses on it.   
He just loves them so fucking much.   
Finally less distracted by his work concerns, Martin truly notices Gerry for the first time all evening. His hair is tied up in a messy bun, his long throat bisected with a choker. His elegant hands are covered in paint, as always, and his mesh shirt and dark jeans are equally streaked with random colours.   
His favorite black combat boots add a couple of inches to his height, making it even easier for him to lean up again to slide a few books onto the highest shelf, and Martin flushes as he takes in the long line of Gerry's lean body.   
He looks as spectacular as ever, and Martin suddenly wishes he could take all those clothes off.   
He considers carefully for a moment. He glances over towards the storefront, finding all the blinds closed, as they should be.   
"Gerry, come here." Martin asserts, tone shifting to something that makes Gerry stiffen where he stands.   
He turns, obliging without much preamble, coming over to stand less than a breath away from Martin.   
"Yes?"   
"Would you like to take your clothes off?" He asks, very casual.   
Gerry raises an eyebrow pertly, gesturing around him. "Right here?"  
Martin's eyes burn, voice firm. "Right here."  
"Well, since you asked so nicely. Yes, I think I would."  
Gerry does not doubt that once Martin has him naked, it will be a good time, although he isn't sure what that would look like in the middle of his place of business.   
Martin leans back on a bookshelf, watching intently as Gerry toes off his boots and socks, leaving his feet bare. He goes for his shirt next, pulling it off to reveal his lean torso and very alluring nipple piercings. Martin is tempted to interrupt to suck them into his mouth but leaves Gerry to complete his task.   
He goes for his belt, the sound of it snapping out of its loops reverberating through the quiet store like a shot. By the time he pushes his jeans down his neat hips, nothing underneath them, he is already partly hard and Martin takes him in hungrily.   
Gerry is never what you would call shy, but he is clearly affected by the directness of his lover's gaze, and the heat in it. A flush spreads down his neck, nipples standing erect in the cool air.   
"Stand still," Martin orders him, pushing away from the shelf to slowly circle the naked man before him. He doesn't touch at all yet, merely looking intently. He pauses facing Gerry's back, appraising the line of eyes inked into the vertebrae of his spine. They flow all the way down to his coccyx, ending enticingly at the swell of his ass.   
He moves forward, close enough that Gerry can feel his breath, but not yet touching anywhere.   
He finally closes the minute gap, placing a line of kisses down the top few tattoos. A hand snakes down to grip a hip firmly.   
Having been given an instruction, Gerry doesn't move, but he shakes slightly from anticipation.   
"Now that I have you the way I want you, what should I do with you?" Martin asks him, voice quiet.   
"Anything you want."   
"Have you ever wanted me here?" He circles back around to look Gerry in the eyes again. They're wild and slightly desperate, and Martin knows this is going to be fun.   
"I always want you," Gerry confesses.   
Martin takes him by the hair and tugs his head back firmly. He moans, and then again when Martin sucks a nipple into his mouth. He takes the other in his free hand, tracing first gently, then gripping it firmly, mimicking the movements of his tongue and teeth on the other.   
Gerry is fully hard now, standing straight up and leaking a little as he groans enthusiastically. His hands tighten into firsts, self-control waning.   
Martin seriously considers dropping to his knees and sucking him off, an enjoyable activity for them both, but he has another idea that might be more interesting.   
He draws Gerry down to kiss him fiercely, and broken out of his stillness, he explodes into movement, pushing Martin into the shelf behind him, pressing him hard into it. He presses his tongue into Martin's mouth just as enthusiastically, hands moving around to touch and grip.   
It's always heady to be fully dressed and have a lover naked, and it's a feeling Martin relishes, but now he lets Gerry undress him in short order, much faster than even he stripped. Soon they press together, skin to skin, Gerry's cock hot and heavy between them.   
Martin drags him back towards the sofa in the back corner of the bookstore. It's not really big enough for them, as they're both too tall, but he thinks they can make it work.   
"Are we really fucking in your bookstore?" Gerry asks, voice half incredulous, half incredibly horny.   
"Well, I would hardly invite you to take your clothes off if I wasn't going to make it worth your while," Martin assures, smirking at him. "I wish I could actually fuck you, but we'll just have to make use of what we have on hand."  
Gerry falls back on the sofa, Martin kneeling between his legs.   
"Which would be my dick, I'm guessing."   
He hums an affirmation. "Something like that. Hands behind your head, you monster."  
Gerry had been working a hand between Martin's legs, the other gripping his ass. He pouts as he moves his hands away, gripping them together at the base of his skull.   
Martin spreads his legs, reaching down to slide his own hand between his legs. Gerry groans, tensing as Martin's fingers move to slip inside himself. He works himself open quickly, looking Gerry in the eyes the whole time.   
The point of the endeavor is neither to come nor to tease Gerry, although Martin knows that watching him finger himself makes Gerry absolutely wild. He collects as much natural lubrication as possible, coating his fingers as much as he can.   
Reaching forward, he slips his wet hand down to rim Gerry's ass insistently. His hips lift and he gasps, eyes going wide.  
"Colour?" Martin checks.  
"Green."   
Martin grins and sets to work fingering him thoroughly.   
It's a messy process, with not nearly enough lube, but Gerry fucking loves it.   
Using one and then two fingers, Martin spreads him wide, occasionally leaning down to lick at his dick sloppily.   
"Fuck fuck fuck." Gerry screams eventually, trying to muffle the noise into the cushion.   
Martin grins, happy with his work.   
"Stay here. Don't move. Don't touch yourself." Martin commands him, getting up and leaning down to kiss him quickly.   
"Martin," Gerry moans out his name frantically.   
"I'll be back, love."  
He disappears, returning with something clutched in his fist.   
"Gerry."   
"Yes?"  
"I have a vibrator here." Martin holds it up, showing it to him.  
"Of course you do." Gerry presses his eyes closed briefly. In gratitude, Martin chooses to believe.   
"I'm going to turn in on, and put it in your tight little ass, and then I want you to fuck me for as long as you can."   
Gerry nods enthusiastically.   
"Colour?"   
"Green, so fucking green." Gerry grins at him, brat showing. "Chartreuse, phthalo, viridian."   
Martin grins at him indulgently, reaching down and twisting a nipple between two fingers. Gerry levitates.   
He turns on the vibe, then puts it in himself first, getting it slick with his own wetness.   
He enjoys it for a moment, eye closing briefly. Gerry moans again, appreciating the show.   
He slides it into Gerry next, fitting it in snuggly.   
"Ready?"   
"So past ready."  
"You can move."   
Gerry surges up, grabbing Martin's knees and tipping him back. With no preamble, he lines himself up and slams up into Martin's hot center.   
They both gasp, already driven past insane.   
Gerry fucks Martin hard. Much harder than he would normally start, but he's past gentleness and he slams up into him over and over again, gripping his hips and tilting him so his cock hits his most sensitive spot over and over.   
Instead of going to Martin's clit, Gerry presses a hand over his belly. The pressure intensifies the feeling over the driving force of his thrusts, and before long, Martin is sobbing into a hand pressed over his mouth. He doesn't come as soon as he would if something was working his clit, but the feeling builds steadily, and when he does come, it's explosive, lights bursting behind his eyes where he presses them closed desperately.   
Gerry's rhythm slows and stutters as Martin comes around him, insanely overstimulated. He leans down to gather Martin much closer, and his thrusts turn deep and slow, their arms all wrapping them up together.   
Gerry makes a sobbing moan as he finishes inside Martin, tensing and digging his fingers into his back bruisingly.   
He goes boneless instantly, simply collapsing completely on his soft chest. Martin reaches down and pulls the vibe out, turning it off and tossing it aside.   
They pant together for long, intimate moments, endorphins and impossible affection buzzing through them hotly.   
Eventually, Gerry remembers that he can't just lay directly atop his lover's lungs, and despite the lack of available space, manages to twist them to lie on their sides, spooning.   
"Holy fuck." The goth mutters once he's caught his breath slightly.   
Martin chuckles, bringing the back of his hand up to kiss it tenderly. "Enjoy yourself?"   
Gerry just groans contentedly. 

They must sleep because an insistent knock on the door at midnight jolts them awake and sets their hearts pounding frantically.   
Martin shoots up, hurrying to grab some combination of clothing.   
"Who the fuck-" Gerry swears, only bothering to drag his jeans on before stomping off to investigate.   
"Gerry!" Martin hisses, not wanting his half-naked boyfriend to answer the door in the middle of the night.   
"It's Jon." He tells Martin, both of them relaxing instantly.   
"Hi," Jon says when the door opens, bewildered. "I wasn't expecting you to be here."   
"No one was," Gerry says cheerfully, grinning at him sleepily. He goes back over to collapse on the couch, alone this time.   
Jon raises an eyebrow at the clothes scattered everywhere and the general state of his lovers. "You two have a good time?"   
Martin is still standing in the book stacks, having managed to find only his own pants. He's put Gerry's dark mesh shirt on in his confusion, and he just looks kind of dazed.   
"A very good time," Martin mutters, haltingly. He tries to gather his bearings, searching around for his clothes. "Gerry was needy at home, so he came over to bug me."  
Gerry grunts, unimpressed with the assessment.   
Jon finds and hands over Martin's shirt. He also picks up his jumper, but instead of giving it to him, Jon shrugs his jacket off and puts it on himself.   
He goes over to Gerry and pulls him up to make room on the sofa for him.   
"Hey!" Martin protests when he finishes swapping shirts and notices the theft.   
"You hardly seem to need it." Jon points out, Gerry tucking him under an arm and curling around him. "You two were naked up until very recently."  
"Oh, you think because Gerry's got you that you can be a dirty sweater thief." Martin crosses his arms, narrowing his eyes threateningly.  
"Martin, stop glaring and come cuddle," Gerry tells him sleepily. Jon pats the space next to him enticingly, and the flustered man relents and flops down beside his knitwear stealing boyfriend.   
Martin explains to Jon why he had to work late and how Gerry invited himself over to participate.   
"Yes, work," Jon snorts derisively. "Your love language is clearly acts of service, love."  
Martin blushes but doesn't dignify the observation with a response. He's right, obviously, but it doesn't do to let Jon know that.   
The other man explains his incredibly long day at the library, sighing tiredly and shifting to release the tension in his spine.   
Gerry, having finally woken up most of the way, shifts them around and works insistent fingers around his tense shoulders and spine.   
"It's not often that you have to work until midnight anymore." Gerry points out, fingers working at his tension like magic.   
“I wasn’t pleased about it either.” Jon rolls his eyes, “Elias has been downright vindictive recently, piling things on us until there’s absolutely no way to get it all done during work hours. Then he set ridiculous deadlines, just to ramp up the tension.”  
“The fuckwit just wants to watch you all squirm,” Gerry remarks, placing a kiss on his neck as his hands continue to move wonderfully. “The worse he gets, the more he knows he can get away with.”   
“I know, which is why I’ve been trying to be better about ignoring him and just working my hours and then coming home. I don’t want to be busy all the time anymore.” Jon sighs, frustration leaking out of him rapidly. “He had a go at Sasha today though. I hoped if I got some stuff done and sent off to him, he might lay off for a while.”   
Martin frowns at that. "He's becoming vindictive."  
Jon shrugs, looking downcast and exhausted. He pulls his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. Like that, he looks like nothing so much as an exhausted child, albeit with a lot of gray hair.   
Wishing to break the melancholy rapidly building, Martin remarks. "We could just kill him, you know."  
"Yeah," Gerry takes up the suggestion enthusiastically. "If we suffocate him and then burn his body in his fancy, stupid car, no one will ever be able to pin it on us."   
"Or, we could sneak into his house and give him a potassium overdose," Martin says, voice mild. "If we give him the shot under his tongue, also no evidence."  
"Even if we do go to prison, you'll visit us, won't you, baby?" Gerry wraps himself around Jon from behind, and Martin mimics the gesture from the front.   
He laughs, a bit wetly, at the entire exchange. The comfort of being wrapped in their arms finally dispels the last of his bad mood, and he just luxuriates in being surrounded by his lovers on every side.   
Martin tilts his head up to kiss him thoroughly, and affectionate warmth fills him from the inside out.   
They are, as ever, entirely at home with one another, and being surrounded by books and the warm scent of tea only improves the contented feeling.   
At one point Gerry remembers it's 1 A.M. and they haven't had dinner and aren't even home yet. He orders random takeout on his phone, prompting them to rush the few blocks home to get to the loft before the tired delivery man arrives.   
They eat pizza, standing in the kitchen, while Gerry and Jon have a loud debate on the merits of American pizza vs Italian style.   
Gerry, who once spent a month hiking around Italy, doesn't appreciate Jon's American bias, and Martin just laughs at them when they demand a tie-breaker vote.   
By the time they drag themselves up the stairs, it's almost 2, and they're all dead tired. Martin tucks Jon straight into bed, before joining Gerry in the shower to wash up after their messy bookstore escapade.   
Martin marvels at Gerry's unstoppable physical flirtation, even almost asleep on his feet, and reaches up to kiss him softly as the water rains down around them.   
"Thank you for coming to bother me," Martin whispers, their foreheads pressed together. "I needed you, even when I didn't let myself think about it."  
"You always need me," He responds happily, a characteristic half-smirk lining his tired face. "I always need you. And we both always need our grumpy librarian."  
"Always," Martin confirms, satisfied and content in his life, and with his lovers most of all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> If you liked it, please check out the other fics in my All the Shades series.


End file.
